Daily life
Codice fiscale
KO-dee-cheh fees-KA-leh
Your Italian tax code — free, same-day, and required before a lease, a bank account, a SIM or a doctor.
Permesso di soggiorno
per-MES-so dee sod-JOR-no
The residence permit. Non-EU arrivals file for it within eight working days of entry, on paper, at a post office.
Iscrizione anagrafica
ees-kree-TSYO-neh a-na-GRA-fee-ka
Registering your address with the comune. A municipal police officer calls at the flat to check you really live there.
ZTL Centrale
dzeh-tee-EL-leh chen-TRA-leh
The central limited-traffic zone, camera-enforced on weekday mornings. Check the current hours — they have changed more than once.
Food
Bicerin
bee-che-REEN
Espresso, drinking chocolate and cream in layers, in a small glass. A Turin invention, drunk here since the eighteenth century.
Gianduiotto
jan-doo-YOT-to
The hazelnut-and-chocolate ingot invented in Turin when Napoleonic blockades made cocoa scarce. A local point of pride.
Social
Aperitivo torinese
a-peh-ree-TEE-vo to-ree-NEH-zeh
The vermouth-and-buffet ritual that started here — vermouth was invented in Turin in 1786 and the city still takes it seriously.
Gnanca un
NYAN-ka oon
Piedmontese for 'not even one'. The dialect is fading in the city itself, but the intonation and the understatement are not.
Culture
Portici
POR-tee-chee
Turin's arcades — around 18 kilometres of them along the grand nineteenth-century streets, built so the royal family could walk in the rain.
Sabauda
sa-BOW-da
'Of the House of Savoy' — used for the city's palaces, its formality and, half-jokingly, for the Turinese temperament.
Emergency
112
uno uno due
The single European emergency number. Piedmont's answering centre at Grugliasco covers Turin province and the Aosta Valley.
Some of this may be out of date. Spotted something inaccurate? Help us keep it right for the next newcomer.